got good ears

[temporal_affairs]

The neighbors don't complain. Much. (They do occasionally ask that things be kept down, but they don't complain about there being noise at all. They understand about mates.)

The room isn't designed for long-term human occupation. There is no bathroom, no food, no bed, no climate control - though this is Florida, so climate control is not such a concern - no plumbing.

But there's lots of magic. It's such fun to make, after all.

(Nathan had been worried he'd have to ask one of the succubi, or Joham, for lessons on what might whimsically be called "safe sex". He likes not having to bother with this better.)

Comments

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan picks him up and hustles him behind the nearest, sturdiest tree.

[manofmyword]

The Joker is going to remember this tree with great fondness.

[temporal_affairs]

They don't really make a lot of northward progress over the next four days, and then Nathan says, "Timer says now, for going to meet Henry, do you want to just teleport us to Jaipur?"

[manofmyword]

"Sure," he says, laughing, and spends a pentagon. They appear in an unoccupied room in the appropriate capital.

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan knows the way to where Rosalie and Emmett live; he leads the Joker there and knocks.

"Come in!" calls a cheerful woman's voice.

Nathan opens the door.

Rosalie is, subsequent Heidi's demise, the most beautiful vampire in the world by any objective standard that doesn't account for personal types - and given the baseline vampire beauty, this makes her the most beautiful person in the world. She is smiling with the radiance of a sun. The baby in her arms doesn't look four days old.

"Nathan, hi!" she beams. "And this must be your new mate."

[manofmyword]

The Joker waves.

"Cute kid!"

[temporal_affairs]

Rosalie kisses Henry on the forehead. "Thank you! Isn't he perfect? And he's all mine and Emmett's, and we thought we'd never - well, I do have you to thank for that, don't I, in a roundabout way?"

[manofmyword]

"Guess you do," he says. Cheerfully, "You're welcome!"

[temporal_affairs]

"Thank you." Then, after a moment, "Do you want to hold Henry?" And to Nathan she adds, "He's a half-vampire, of sorts, like Elspeth, not too fragile."

Nathan takes the baby from her and makes faces at him and gets faces made back; the baby looks months old, not days. And then he hands him over to the Joker.

[manofmyword]

The Joker holds little Henry and cuddles him and makes even sillier faces than Nathan, and listens gravely to the burbling he gets in reply.

[temporal_affairs]

"Aww," says Nathan, laughing.

Henry reaches out and grabs the Joker's nose. He is only a little baby, and only a half-vampire, but he is still very strong, and if he is not made to let go, the nose will give way soon enough.

[manofmyword]

He giggles, and doesn't do anything about the nose. He'll just grow a new one, right?

[temporal_affairs]

Rosalie isn't so willing to let that happen; she pries Henry's hand off the Joker's nose and takes her baby back. "Are you all right?"

"He's fine," says Nathan. "Bounces back. You didn't hear anything about me begging lessons from your cousins, did you?"

"Well... no," admits Rosalie. "But you could've been waiting."

"Not everyone is your sainted father, Rosalie," chuckles Nathan.

[manofmyword]

The Joker gives Nathan a fond one-armed hug.

"I get better," he confirms brightly. "A squished nose here or there doesn't bug me."

[temporal_affairs]

"Magic," concludes Rosalie.

"Lots of very lovely magic," agrees Nathan.

Rosalie shrugs and hands Henry back to the Joker. "Elspeth was very gentle with humans when she was little, but we didn't have her around many and the first was - oh, she was at least a month old," she muses, "so I suppose she might have been inclined to grab at people too, or even bite - Henry hasn't tried to bite anyone, but if he looks like he's going to, stop him unless you want to turn, male half-vampires are venomous."

"He's immune to venom," Nathan supplies, winking.

"That's all I need to know," says Rosalie.

[manofmyword]

Laughing, he makes another silly face at Henry.

"Aren't you a cute little nose-grabber," he says.

[temporal_affairs]

"Yah," agrees Henry quite lucidly.

"Already he talks," marvels Nathan.

"Elspeth took longer, but then she had her talent, she didn't need words so much," says Rosalie. "He woke up calling for mommy this morning." She's utterly glowing.

[manofmyword]

"Awwww," says the Joker. "Awwwwww."

He is over-awww'd.

[temporal_affairs]

"Lucked out with a diurnal schedule," Nathan comments.

"Well, it wouldn't have been so bad if he'd wound up with another, but yes, he wakes up at eight in the morning, goes to sleep at midnight," says Rosalie.

[manofmyword]

The Joker progresses from making silly faces at Henry to making silly noises at him. He is enjoying himself tremendously.

[temporal_affairs]

Henry makes noises right back, babbling like a champ and uttering occasional words such as "up". A fair fraction of his words are not in English and the Joker may be forgiven for not recognizing them.

[manofmyword]

He giggles.

[temporal_affairs]

"We'd really like him to learn English intelligibly before trying to incorporate other languages, but of course that's impossible, people speak a dozen things even just within the coven," says Rosalie.

"He'll sort it all out by the time he's two weeks old," says Nathan, waving a hand, "he's a quick little cutie, isn't he?"

"Very," says Rosalie warmly.

[manofmyword]

"He is," says the Joker, tapping the baby's nose.

[temporal_affairs]

There is further cooing over Henry, and then Henry says "thirsty", pronouncing the word quite clearly, and Rosalie takes him back to offer him a bottle of Elspeth's golden bubbly, which he sucks down greedily, and Nathan leaves her be, motioning for the Joker to follow.